AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Nine
ROWAN
“ROWAN, HONEY,” FAITH SAID, walking over to him. “Is everything okay with you? Your mind seems to be elsewhere lately.”
Rowan was lounging on the couch, one leg slung over onto the cushion while a beer rested in his right hand.
“Huh?” He looked up at her, and for a moment, Tara’s face crossed his mind. But when he blinked again, Faith came back into his vision. “Oh, nothing. I’m fine.”
“You don’t seem fine.” She sat down on the couch beside him, rubbing his leg with her hand, but he quickly pulled it away. “What’s going on with you?”
“I said, nothing!” He turned off the TV, chugged the rest of his beer, and stood up. “I’m going for a walk.”
“But it’s almost midnight! Where are you going?”
“Just… just out, okay? Get off my back. I need some air.”
Rowan roughly grabbed his coat and threw a scarf over his face before slipping his shoes on. The red and yellow scarf brought back many memories, taking his mind back to the time when Tara had knitted it for him for their one-year anniversary. Neither of them had much, but he’d treasured this scarf ever since. Of course, Faith never found out about it. That the one piece of item he could never seem to part with was the one given to him by his ex-wife.
Rowan managed to make it down several streets before stopping into a nearby bar. The streets of Boston were much calmer than those of New York City. Colder, sure, but he’d take the drop in temperature over the increase in crime any day.
He’d never told her, but Faith had always been his rebound. He thought moving all the way to Boston and starting a new life with a new woman would distract him from Tara and make him see that he was much better without her. And it was fun at first, great, actually. Faith treated him the way Tara used to, always showed up on time, and never let herself fall victim to social media. It was everything he’d wanted that Tara couldn’t give him. But there was just one problem. She wasn’t Tara. And though he thought Faith was capable of replacing her, she just couldn’t, and Rowan had resented Faith ever since he moved up here with her.
“Can I get a lager, please?” he gestured to the bartender when he walked inside.
Perth’s Pub was never usually crowded, not even on weekends, and because of that, it remained one of his favorite places to grab a drink. He hated large crowds, the smells, the loud noises, the puke, no, he wasn’t for any of it.
“Rough night?” the man asked when he set down his beer on top of a thin coaster.
“Woman problems.”
“Ah, I know the feeling. Wife ran off with my kids just last week. Haven’t heard from them since.”
That got his attention. “Really? Why? You didn’t try looking for them?”
Pat, his name tag said. He gave Rowan a long sigh. “Oh, trust me, I’ve tried. Woman just woke up one day and told me she didn’t love me anymore, and just like that, she was gone. Besides, there’s not much I can do anyway. They were her kids; I just happened to have bonded with them.”
“I’m sorry, man, that sucks.”
Pat shrugged. “Nothing you can really do when life kicks you in the face like that. You just gotta get back up and continuing living. But if an old man like me were to give anyone advice, it’ll be this. When you love a woman, don’t let her go, even if you think there’s someone better out there. Trust me, there isn’t. If I could go back to the woman I had fifteen years ago, maybe I wouldn’t be living out of a studio apartment right now.”
“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.” Rowan checked his watch. “Listen, man, I gotta run, but I hope everything gets better for you.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be fine.” Pat waved. “Just don’t fuck up your own life.
Rowan ran through the door to his and Faith’s shared apartment and pulled out his suitcase. He then ran over to his dresser and started stacking his clothes into it.
“Rowan?” Faith was half asleep when she turned on the lights and saw her boyfriend on the floor of their room. “What are you doing?”
Without even looking up, he answered, “I’m sorry, Faith, but I can’t do this anymore. I have to leave.”
“Leave? Are you going to your parents? When are you coming back?”
“I’m not, Faith, I’m not. I’m going back to New York, and I’m not coming back.” He stood up and walked over to her, plopping himself onto the bed beside her. “I’m sorry, Faith. I should’ve told you sooner, but I don’t think this is going to work out. We’re… we’re just not good for each other.”
Faith crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s Tara, isn’t it? You’re going back to her, after you promised me that you were completely and utterly over her. Now, you’re going back?! Why would you do this to me, Rowan? Why? I introduced you to my parents. I told them about our future together. And now you’re leaving?”
“Why the hell would you do that? We never discussed a future together. I didn’t think meeting your parents meant we had to get married.”
